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News 
York 


lEx  ICthrts 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
" Ever'thing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Si.ymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


Site  of  the  Metropolitan  Life  Building, 


Metropolitan  Life  Building,  Madison  Square,  New  York 
Covers  an  entire  block,  has  a  floor  area  of  over  25  acres  and  contains  48  elevators 


The 

Metropolitan  Life  Building 

MADISON  SQUARE,  NEW  YORK 

AMONG  the  many  monumental  structures  for  business 
purposes  erected  in  New  York  City  the  Home  Office 
building  of  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company 
stands  notably  in  the  foremost  rank  by  reason  of  its  great 
size,  the  impressive  stateliness  of  its  design,  the  thoroughly 
substantial  character  of  its  construction  and  the  completeness 
of  its  appointments. 

The  main  building  contains  eleven  stories  and  is  164  feet 
high.  The  distance  around  the  building  is  1,250  feet,  each 
avenue  frontage  being  200  feet  and  each  street  frontage  425 
feet.  It  has  a  total  floor  space  of  nearly  25  acres.  The 
entire  exterior,  345,000  square  feet,  is  faced  with  pure  white 
Tuckahoe  marble,  about  half  a  million  cubic  feet  having 
been  used  in  its  construction. 

High  and  lofty,  like  a  great  sentinel  keeping  watch  over 
the  millions  of  policy-holders  and  marking  the  fast-fleeting 
minutes  of  life,  stands  the  Tower,  its  completion  marking 
the  culmination  of  this  series  of  building  operations  which, 
commencing  with  the  construction  during  the  years  1S«)0  to 
1893  of  the  southwesterly  section  of  the  structure  fronting 
on  Madison  Avenue,  ended  in  1909. 

The  dimensions  of  the  Tower  are  75  feet  on  Madison 
Avenue  and  85  feet  on  Twenty-fourth  Street,  and  its  total 
height  700  feet,  exceeding  considerably  that  of  any  other 


structure  of  steel  and  masogfy  hitherto  attempted  (the  Eiffel 
Tower  not  being  included  in  this  comparison,  that  being  in 
reality  only  an  open-work  "skeleton"  structure).  In  its 
general  design  and  outline  the  Metropolitan  Tower  is  modeled 
after  the  famous  Campanile  of  St.  Mark  at  Venice,  which  was 
taken  as  a  prototype,  but  with  such  deviations  as  were 
necessary  to  have  the  Tower  in  architectural  harmony  with 
the  main  building. 

The  highest  lookout  is  reached  at  the  balcony  of  the 
fiftieth  story,  660  feet  above  the  sidewalk  level,  from  which 
vantage  point  a  most  comprehensive  and  unique  panoramic 
view  may  be  obtained.  Within  range  are  visible  the  homes 
of  over  one-sixteenth  of  the  entire  population  of  the  United 
States. 

The  Tower  Clock 

One  of  the  interesting  and  unique  features  of  the  building 
is  the  mammoth  clock,  the  largest  four-dial  tower  clock  in 
the  world,  located  346  feet  above  the  sidewalk,  and  visible 
far  and  wide  over  the  city. 

The  dials  are  built  up  of  reinforced  concrete  faced  with 
vitreous  blue  and  white  mosaic  tile.  Each  dial  is  26  feet  6 
inches  in  diameter.  The  figures  on  the  dial  are  4  feet  high 
and  the  minute-marks  10  V  inches  in  diameter. 

The  minute-hand  measures  17  feet  from  end  to  end,  12 
feet  from  center  to  point,  and  weighs  1,000  pounds;  the  hour- 
hand  measures  13  feet  4  inches  from  end  to  end,  8  feet  4  inches 
from  center  to  point,  and  weighs  700  pounds.  They  are 
built  on  iron  frames,  sheathed  with  copper,  and  revolve  on 
roller-bearings. 

The  driving-power  of  this  huge,  mechanism  is  electricity, 
none  of  the  many  devices  connected  therewith  requiring  any 
manual  operation,  the  entire  installation  being  automatic. 


The  master  clock,  located  in  the  Directors'  Room  on  the 
second  floor,  not  only  controls  the  entire  tower  clock  outfit, 
but  about  100  other  clocks  throughout  the  building,  as  well 
as  several  programme  instruments  for  sounding  various 
schedules  of  bells  in  the  different  departments. 

Through  the  medium  of  a  special  transmitter,  minute 
impulses  are  sent  to  the  tower  clock  mechanisms  on  the 
twenty-sixth  floor,  keeping  them  in  exact  synchronism  with 
the  master  clock;  and  at  each  quarter-hour  electrical 
impulses  are  transmitted  to  the  electric  hammers  on  the 
forty-sixth  story,  and  simultaneously  are  heard  the  notes  of 
the  old  historic  Cambridge   chimes,  composed   by  Handel. 


"O"  "CT  "CT 


Following  the  fourth  or  last  quarter  the  hours  are  sounded 
on  the  7,000-pound  bell,  with  an  impact  of  about  200  pounds. 
This  blow,  struck  on  such  a  large  bell,  may  be  heard  many 
miles  away. 

The  chime  comprises  four  bells,  the  largest  weighing 
7,000  pounds  (key  of  H  flat);  the  second,  .>.()<><)  pounds  (K 


flat);  the  third,  2,000  pounds  (F  natural),  and  the  smallest, 
1,500  pounds  (key  of  G).  They  are  mounted  on  pedestals 
between  the  marble  columns  outside  the  forty-sixth  story, 
and  are  said  to  be  twice  as  high  above  the  sidewalk  as  any 
other  large  bells  in  the  world. 

As  the  evening  darkness  draws  near,  at  any  predetermined 
hour  for  which  the  mechanism  may  be  adjusted,  hundreds  of 
electric  lights  appear  back  of  the  dial  numerals,  the  minute- 
marks  and  the  entire  length  of  the  hands,  all  of  which  are 
brilliantly  illuminated  with  splendid  effect — a  feature  never 
produced  by  any  other  clock  in  the  world. 

Simultaneously  with  the  illumination  Of  the  hands  and 
dials,  an  automatically  actuated  switch  lights  up  a  great 
electric  octagonal  lantern,  eight  feet  in  diameter,  located  at 
the  top  of  the  Tower,  from  which  powerful  electric  flashlights, 
marking  the  hours  in  the  evening,  may  be  seen  for  a  great 
distance,  far  beyond  any  possible  transmission  of  sound,  the 
time  being  signaled  therefrom  as  follows: 

Each  of  the  quarter-hours  is  flashed  in  red  and  the  hours 
in  white  light.  One  red  flash  for  the  quarter,  two  red  flashes 
for  the  half,  three  red  flashes  for  three-quarters,  and  four 
red  flashes  for  the  even  hour — these  latter  flashes  followed  by 
a  number  of  white  flashes  marking  the  hour. 


Some  Interesting  Statistics 


Size  of  building:    Main  portion  of  building  200x425x164  feet  high 

Tower  75x85x700  feet  high 

Size  of  Annex  75x80x216  feet  high 

Superficies  of  exterior  345,000  square  feet 

Including  Annex  405,000  square  feet 

Cubical  contents,  including  vaults  (excluding  courts).  16,287,934  cubic  feet 

Including  Annex   17,850,239  cubic  feet 

Floor  area  of  building  (about  twenty-five  acres)          1,085,663  square  feet 

Including  Annex  1,189,388  square  feet 

Total  weight  of  building  170,000,000  pounds — 85,000  tons 

Total  weight  of  Tower  87,226,000  pounds — 43,613  tons 

Weight  of  structural  steel:    Tower  7,500  tons 

Balance  8,000  tons 

Total  15,500  tons 

Normal  weight  on  corner  steel  columns  7,500,000  pounds 

Additional  load  due  to  high  wind  pressure  2,900,000  pounds 

Or  a  total  load  of  10,400,000  pounds 

Cross  sectional  area  of  steel  corner  columns,  sub-basement,  540  square  inches 

Weight  of  basement  corner  columns  22  tons 

Number  of  bricks  in  building,  about  35,000,000 

Number  of  barrels  of  cement  in  Tower  alone,  over  40,000 

Number  of  cubic  yards  of  concrete  in  Tower  alone,  about  9,000 

Number  of  cubic  feet  of  white  marble  in  exterior  facing  556,000 

(More  than  in  any  other  structure  in  the  world.) 

Number  of  passenger  elevators  (thirty  hydraulic,  eight  electric)  38 

Number  of  freight  elevators  (hydraulic)  10 

Number  of  stories  in  Tower  50 

Number  of  steps  from  first  story  to  top  of  Tower  1,053 

Combined  length  of  corridors  3|  miles 

Combined  height  of  elevator  shafts  l£  miles 

S'orage  capacity  of  water  tanks  90,900  gallons 

Storage  capacity  of  coal  vaults  4,000  tons 

Horse-power  boilers  3,350 

Number  of  miles  of  plumbing  pipe  (about)  13 

Total  length  of  cables  of  elevators: 

Hoisting  and  counterweight  cables  121,000  feet 

Operating  cables  19,000  feet 

Distance  traveled  by  elevators  in  one  year  124,090  miles 

Electric  lights  30,000 

Electric  light  fixtures  15,000 

Motors  (total  horse-power,  707)   116 

Iron  conduits  800,000  feet — 15 1}  miles 

Electric  light  and  power  wire  1,000,000  feet — 189  miles 

Telephone  and  signal  wire  13,000,000  feet— 2,462  miles 


The  Marble  Court  as  it  appeared  at  a  Reception  to  the  Fourth  International 
Conqress  of  Actuaries 


Upper  View  of  flic  M,irblc  (  ourt 


Some  Places  of  Interest  in  New  York 


Statue  of  Liberty.— Bedloe's  Island. 
vSteamer  from  Battery  every  hour.  25 
cents  round  trip. 

Battery  Park. — Southern  extremity  of 
Manhattan  Island. 

Aquarium. — Battery  Park.  Open  10 
a.  m.  to  4  p.  M.  Free. 

Bowling  Green. — Foot  of  Broadway. 
Oldest  Park.    Drill  ground  in  1626. 

NEW  Custom  House. — Bowling  Green. 

Trinity  Church. — Broadway,  opposite 
Wall  Street. 

Sub-TrEasury. — Wall  and  Nassau 
Streets.  Site  of  Washington's  inaugura- 
tion. 

Stock  Exchange. — -"Broad  Street. 

PrauncEs'  Tavern. — Broad  and  Pearl 
Streets.     179  years  old. 

Singer  Building. — Broadway  and  Lib- 
erty Street. 

Terminal  Building  of  McAdoo  Hud- 
son River  Tunnels.  — ■  Church  Street, 
from  Cortlandt  to  Fulton  Streets. 

St.  Paul's  ChapEL. — Broadway  and 
Vesey  Street.  Built  in  1766.  Attended 
by  Washington,  whose  pew  remains. 

City  Hall.— City  Hall  Park. 

Brooklyn  Bridge. — Manhattan  termi- 
nal at  City  Hall  Park.    Promenade  free. 

Manhattan  Bridge. — Manhattan  ter- 
minal at  Canal  Street  and  the  Bowery. 

Williamsburg  Bridge.  —  Manhattan 
terminal  at  Delancey  Street. 

GracE  Church. — Broadway  and  10th 
Street.    Visitors  welcome. 

Washington  Arch. — Foot  of  5th  Ave. 

Tammany  Hall. — 14th  Street,  between 
3d  Avenue  and  Irving  Place. 

Madison  Square.— Broadway,  5th  and 
Madison  Avenues,  23d  to  26th  Streets. 

Metropolitan  Life  Building. — 4th 
and  Madison  Avenues,  23d  to  24th  Streets. 
Largest  office  building  in  the  world. 
Tower  700  feet  high. 

Madison  Square  Presbyterian 
CttURCH.— Rev.  Dr.  C.  H.  Parkhurst,  pas- 
tor.   Madison  Avenue  and  24th  Street. 

Appellate  Court. — Madison  Avenue 
and  25th  Street. 

Madison  Square  Garden. — Madison 
and  4th  Avenues,  26th  to  27th  Streets. 

Pennsylvania  Railroad  Terminal. — 
7th  to  8th  Avenues,  31st  to  33d  Streets. 

Public  Library. — 5th  Avenue,  40th  to 
4 2d  Streets. 


St.  Patrick's  Cathedral. — 5th  Ave- 
nue and  50th  Street.  Open  daily.  Visi- 
tors welcome. 

Queensboro  Bridge. — Manhattan  ter- 
minal at  East  59th  Street. 

Central  Park. — 5th  Avenue  to  8th 
Avenue,  59th  to  1 10th  Streets. 

New  York  Historical  Society. — 
170  Central  Park  West. 

Menagerie. — Central  Park,  opposite 
East  64th  Street.    9  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m.  FAree. 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. — Cen- 
tral Park,  opposite  East  82d  Street.  Daily, 
10  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m.  Sunday,  1  to  5  p.  m. 
Free,  except  Monday  and  Friday,  25  cents. 

Obelisk. — In  Central  Park,  near 
Museum  of  Art.  'Erected  in  Egypt  1500 
B.  C.  Presented  by  the  Khedive,  and 
brought  to  New  York  in  1 88 1 . 

Museum  of  Natural  History.— Man- 
hattan Square,  Central  Park  West  and 
77th  Street.  9  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m.  Free, 
except  Monday  and  Tuesday,  25  cents. 

Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument. — 
Riverside  Drive  and  89th  Street. 

Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine. — 
Amsterdam  Avenue  and  Morningside  Park, 
1 10th  to  1 13th  Streets.  Corner-stone  laid 
in  1892.  Time  estimated  to  build,  50 
years. 

Columbia  University. — Broadway  and 
Amsterdam  Avenue,  1 16th  to  120th  Streets. 

Grant's  Tomb. — Riverside  Drive  and 
123d  Street.  Open  daily,  10  A.  M.  to  5 
p.  m.  Free. 

College  of  the  City  of  New  York. — 
Amsterdam  Ave.,  138th  to  140th  Sts. 

Jumel  Mansion. — Edgecombe  Avenue 
and  160th  Street.  Washington's  head- 
quarters.   Once  the  home  of  Aaron  Burr. 

High  Bridge. — Over  Harlem  River  at 
175th  Street. 

Washington  Bridge. — Over  Harlem 
River  at  181st  Street. 

New  York  University. — University 
Heights,  Sedgwick  Avenue,  West  179th  to 
181st  Streets. 

Hall  of  Fame. — University  Heights. 

Bronx  Park. — Southern  Boulevard, 
East  182d  Street  and  Pelham  Avenue. 
Free. 

Botanical  Gardens. — In  Bronx  Park, 
mar  Bedford  Park  Station  of  the  Harlem 
Railroad.     10  a.  m.  to  5  P.  m.  FYee. 

Zoological  Park. — In  Bronx  Park. 
Free,  except  Monday  and  Thursday,  25 
cents. 


Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Co. 

(INCORPORATED  BY  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK.      STOCK  COMPANY) 

JOHN  R.  HEGEMAN,  President 
HOME  OFFICE,  1  MADISON  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


The  Daily  Average  of  the  Company's 
Business  During  1910  was 

507  per  day  in  Number  of  Claims  Paid. 

6 163 

$1,428,738  Issued  and  R 

t?1?  "7T0  1")  per  da>  in  Payments  to  Pol- 
•KIl,/ JJ.LJ  Icy-holders  and  addition  to 
Reserve. 


and  Revived. 

lay  in    New  Insurance 
Revived. 


$121,717.71 


per  day  in  Increase  of  Assets. 


In  its  Industrial  Department  the  Metropolitan 
issues  policies  on  every  healthy  member  of  the 
family  from  age  1  to  age  65,  with  premiums 
payable  weekly  from  3c.  to  50c  and  collected 
at  the  home  by  the  Company's  agents.  No 
initiation  fee  is  charged.  Males  and  females  are 
taken  at  the  same  cost.  Claims  are  paid 
promptly  at  death.  In  this  department  the 
Company  has  10,000,000  policies  in  force  insur- 
ing over  a  billion  dollars. 


In  its  Ordinary  De- 
partment the  Metropol- 
itan issues  policies  from 
$1,000  to  $100,000  on 
plans    adapted    to  all 
situations  and  circum- 
stances of  life,  at  rates 
considerably  lower  than 
those  of  other  first -cl.rs 
companies.  Premiums 
are   paid   yearly,  half- 
yearly  or  quarterly,  at 
the  option  of  the  policy- 
holder.   Policies  arc  free 
from   restriction   as  to 
travel  and  reside  nce;  are 
clear,   concise  business 
contracts;  leave  nothing 
tot  he  imagination  j  make 
definite  provision  in  dol- 
lars and  cents. 

ASSETS 

Municipal  and  R. 
R.  Bonds,  and 
Stocks  $135,405,847.32 

Bonds  and  Mort- 
gages   126.5S9.S2S.62 

Real  Estate   24.116.301.56 

Cash   4,016,872.76 

Loans  to  Policy- 
holders   13.779,542.63 

Premiums,  de- 
ferred and  in 
course  of  collec- 
tion (net)   6,207,200.14 

Accrued  Interest, 

Rents,  etc   3372.740.! 

I313.9SX.334.00 

LIABILITIES 

Reinsurance  Fund  SJ.'0 .3*11.929.1  hi 
All  other  Li. il. ili- 
ties   12365.321.36 

Capital  &  Surplus  30.742.083.64 
$313,988,334.00 

The  Metropolitan  is- 
sues, through  its  Inter- 
mediate   Branch,  even 
£500  policies  on  men  and 
women  from  ages  12  to 
65  nearest  birthday,  pre- 
miums payable  yearly, 
half-yearly  or  quarterly. 
They  are  in  full  benefit 
on    the    date  of  isMie. 
0  Midi t  i(  ms  are  plain  and 
simple  and  easily  under- 
stood.   Provisioafl  and 
privileges  are  libera]  and 
extensive. 

Send  for  a  copy  of  its  rates  for  policies  of  $5,000,  which  are  the  lowest  in  the  I'nited  States 

PRINTED  BY  THE 
METROPOLITAN  LIFE  PRESS 


